12.11.2008

Dear Purple: Championships are not Won in November

Are you happy with this good Lakers team? OK, this very good Lakers team.

No? What, you want more? Want true greatness? Want a team of the ages, a team that looks as if its return trip to the NBA Finals is all but assured?

Sorry, these Lakers are not that team. Not yet, anyway. And there are no guarantees they ever will be.

Certainly, they looked like that team to start the season. When they broke out 7-0, holding every team under 100 points, winning by an average of 18 points a pop. They were all pumped up and excited then. They had this chippy attitude that seemed the residue of being embarrassed by the Celtics in the Finals. A team that had something to prove.

Now, though, they are something else. They are not that team that started the season, and they are not currently evolving and maturing. Mostly, they are going backward.

--Long Beach Press-Telegram

Are these beat writers familiar with the NBA? Seasons are 82-games long. They start in October and last six to eight months.

Hot starts don't count for jack. Championships are won in June, not November.

Last night the Lakers started Luke Walton at the small forward, but he didn't get off the pine in the fourth. Andrew Bynum also started the game, but during crunch time, he became Andrew Pinem, something ESPN tells me is now par for the course. So much for being the next Wilt (or was it the next Kareem?)

The purple and green clash two weeks from today. The Zen Mistress can still get this team into a rhythm. But right now, they are the most dazed and confused 18-3 team I've ever seen.